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Devil's Garden Primitive Loop, Arches National Park

Devil's Garden trailhead is the start of three different levels of hiking. If the complete loop is done, a total of 7 arches can be seen in just under 8 miles round-trip. The easy part of the trail will take you to the bottom of Landscape Arch. Landscape Arch is the second largest arch in the world, with a span of about 300 ft. It is thin and fragile over it's arch, and it is expected that it would be the next arch to fall. Near the beginning of this trail, there are short spur trails to Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches. It is a mostly flat, mostly paved trail with beautiful views of the surrounding fins and spires.

Chesler Park Loop/Joint Trail, Needles District, Canyonlands NP, Utah

The Needles district of Canyonlands National Park holds my favorite hike of our trip, my favorite hike of all-time as it stands now. The hike starts off going up some steps, to a view of miles and miles of white-topped red mushroom rocks below. As we walked further, I noticed huge red and white rock structures to our right and ahead. Eventually, three huge structures of red and white rocks appeared before us. As I walked closer to Chesler Park, these structures started looking like castles. It became obvious how massive these rock structures really were, as we walked up to it.

We started our walk a little late on this particular February morning. After encountering a few traffic jams and detours, our initial plan of hiking Cataract Falls was not going to come true. First the road to the trailhead was closed off, and the next closest parking spot (Pantoll Ranger Station) was completely full. Heading down Panoramic Highway, we kept our eyes peeled for any parking with a trail close by. After driving 2 hours, we were not going to leave empty handed. After driving down Panoramic Highway for 10 minutes, we found a spot near a large trail. We eagerly grabbed it, not knowing what the trail was. Once stopped, we realized that the trail was DipSea Trail. I had heard about the famous DipSea, and had planned to do it on a different day, but it looks like today was going to be that day!

Pinnacles National Park is one half of an ancient volcano that was cut into two by tectonic forces about 20 million years ago. Two thirds of the volcano eventually became Pinnacles National Park while the other side of it became the Neenach Formation almost 200 miles south. Our visit this time had us explore Bear Gulch talus caves. Talus caves are caves formed by boulders and rocks that fall into a narrow canyon. The canyons here are the result of faults and fractures in the central area of volcanic rock. Rock falls that helped form Bear Gulch Caves are believed to have occurred during the last Ice Age.

Tilden Park is known for its Merry-Go-Round, steam trains, petting zoo and Lake Anza. We enjoyed the steam trains on a weekend before Christmas. It was a chilly day when we arrived around noon on a Sunday. We purchased our tickets at the booth and got in line. We were the second group in line for the train. After about 10 minutes of waiting, our train arrived. We chose our own car, two behind the train driver. We noted that our position was a good one, as the steam produced in the front of the train helped warm us on a cool afternoon. Our timing was perfect just before Christmas as our train ride went past many decorative holiday ornaments and even a Santa locomotive. Dress warmly, as it does get chilly in this open-air steam train.